Stanley

SELF-CONTROL

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I suspect that some, maybe even most of us, have an area or two in our lives where we exercise far too little self-control. For a few of us, the struggle is a mounting concern: bad habits are forming, our thought-life and choices are being tainted by the actions we are partaking of, and so on.

I have always been a person able to practice self-restraint. There are nevertheless a few areas of my life that still need work! Recently I found myself frustrated and discouraged with self-control failures — and the Lord seemed to say “Trust Me. I’ll show you the way.”

Later that evening He addressed my concern with this wonderful devotional thought from Arthur Penrhyn “Dean” Stanley (1815 -1881).

Stanley begins with Proverbs 16:32, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”

Stanley then comments: “More dear in the sight of God and His angels than any other conquest is the conquest of self, which each man, with the help of heaven, can secure for himself.”

Simply put: What is of utmost importance to God and to the truly committed follower of Jesus (the “conquest of self”), the Lord Himself will enable us to do!

That victory begins with an act of the will: saying “no” (or “yes” depending on our situation). Remember this: Old patterns and habits are built through use — and broken through disuse. Start choosing to exercise self-restraint (I Peter 1:13) and before too long you will see how true this maxim is! After all: Self-control is the will of God for His children (I Thessalonians 5:8; Titus 2:11-12; I Peter 5:8). We can therefore rest assured He’s going to enable us in this decision.

HE IS GONE, A CLOUD OF LIGHT

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He is gone—a cloud of light
Has received Him from our sight;
High in Heav’n, where eye of men
Follows not, nor angels’ ken;
Through the veils of time and space,
Passed into the holiest place;
All the toil, the sorrow done,
All the battle fought and won.

He is gone—and we remain
In this world of sin and pain:
In the void which He has left
On this earth, of Him bereft.
We have still His work to do,
We can still His path pursue;
Seek Him both in friend and foe,
In ourselves His image show.

He is gone—but we once more
Shall behold Him as before;
In the heaven of heavens the same,
As on earth He went and came;
In the many mansions there,
Place for us He will prepare;
In that world unseen, unknown,
He and we shall yet be one.

He is gone—but not in vain,
Wait until He comes again:
He is risen, He is not here,
Far above this earthly sphere;
Evermore in heart and mind
There our peace in Him we find:
To our own eternal Friend,
Thitherward let us ascend.

About the writer: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was born in Cheshire, England in 1815. He graduated from Oxford in 1837 and entered the ministry of the Church of England. In 1855 he was appointed Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford. In 1864 he became Dean of Westminster. That same year he married Lady Augusta Bruce, a personal friend and attendant of Queen Victoria. He was the author of about a dozen hymns and of several translations. He was also a noted historian and biographer. He died in 1881.

Key Verse: It was not long after he said this that he was taken up into the sky while they were watching, and he disappeared into a cloud. –Acts 1:9

Livingstone, David

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David Livingstone (1813-1873) was a renowned missionary and explorer. He grew up in Glasgow, Scotland in a poor family. He studied on his own and was able to enter the University of Glasgow in 1830 where he earned degrees in theology and medicine. His desire was to become a missionary to China; however, due to the dangerous conditions in that country at the time, the London Missionary Society sent him to Africa in 1840. He began at the missionary station of Robert Moffat in South Africa, whose daughter he later married, and began pushing steadily northward, building stations along the way. Believing that exploration and missions went hand in hand, he became a renowned explorer, discovering Lake N’gami in 1849 and Victoria Falls in 1853. He sent his family home to England and continued his trek deeper into uncharted territory, traveling nearly 1,400 miles on foot and by boat and preaching the Gospel along the way. He went to England in 1856 where he was hailed as a national hero. When he returned to Africa a year later he had resigned from the Mission Society and worked directly for the British government. His goals were national, ethical, and spiritual: to find the source of the Nile, to end the slave trade, and to share the message of Christ. He was lost for a time from the world, which led to a search in 1870 by journalist Henry Stanley, whose line upon discovering him “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” has become famous. He died three years later, found on his knees in the position of prayer by his native guides. He opened the African frontier to missions and his diligent efforts to end the slave trade were largely successful.